Hex based games

I'm wanting to try to make a hex-based, turn based strategy game and I'm having a tough time trying to figure out how to design the "hex architecture" (for lack of a better term).

Does anyone know of any resources that discuss basic things like the best way to "orient" a hex-based coordinate system? Also slightly more advanced things such as movement & pathfinding on a hex-grid (where each hex has a different "movement cost") and finding LOS from one hex to another (assuming some hexes block LOS of course)?

I have made a bunch of hexagonal games myself. Great fun, games change a lot with this simple change.

There are a few ways to handle it. Either you displace every other row or column by half a step, or you tilt the whole grid. Two of the eight directions are removed from the set of neighbors. Much follows naturally from there.

Ingemar Wrote:I have made a bunch of hexagonal games myself. Great fun, games change a lot with this simple change.

There are a few ways to handle it. Either you displace every other row or column by half a step, or you tilt the whole grid. Two of the eight directions are removed from the set of neighbors. Much follows naturally from there.

Which coordinate system do you prefer, alternate row displacement or grid tilting? I read a few of those articles on site that maximile provided - it seems the alternate row displacement system would much easier to relate to while programming as well as not needing to deal with every row (or column) being a different height.

I generally prefer row displacement, but it depends on the need. I would use grid tilting when LOS is important. Well, that too depends on what kind of LOS. Just following the rows is not an issue, but a non-gridbased LOS is easier in a tilted space, I'd say.